IT :<X>IE REAL KRIIGER ICO =o AMD THE !o TRANSVAAL 5Y AN ENGLISHMAN A BOER AMD AN AMERICAN W^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/realkrugertransvOObunc Specially printed for Street & Smith's "The Real Kruger and The Transvaal." The real Kruger AND THE TRANSVAAL Paul Kruger : His Life Story By FRED. A. McKENZIE The Transvaal Boer Speaking for Himself By C. N. T. DU PLESSIS A Brief History of the Transvaal Republic By CHARLES T. BUNCE NEW YORK STREET & SMITH, Publisher^ 238 William Street Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1900 By Street & Smith In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. •\ ] 2 3 1973 1 ¥ Paul Kruger: Die Life Story, - - - 11 Cbe Cransvaal Boer Speaking for fMmeelf, 85 H Brief Bistory of the Cransvaat Republic, 1 5 ¥ PREFACE. The war that is now being waged in South Africa, be- tween the Britons and the Boers, is a subject of far more than ordinary interest to Americans. The Boers are descendants of the same sturdy Dutch stock which is the ancestry of a great number of our people, and we are so closely allied to the English by the double ties of blood and language that the present struggle assumes somewhat the aspect of a family affair with us. With the divided sympathies which exist among us as a people, it is particularly desirable to learn the exact situation, and the causes which have led to this unfor- tunate war. Nearly all published works upon the subject are writ- ten with more or less prejudice, as they are mainly the writings of Englishmen or Boers, whose sympathies are naturally biased in favor of their own nations. This work has been carefully arranged with a view to placing the facts before American readers in such a man- ner as to give the argument on both sides, followed by an impartial historical summary. The first section of the book, " Paul Kruger: His Life Story, " is an excellent personal description of the characteristics and habits of the remarkable man who is at the head of the Transvaal Republic, together with a fair presentation of the English side of the case by Mr. Fred. A. McKenzie, an Englishman, who writes with comparatively little prejudice. ' This is followed by ' The Transvaal Boer Speaking vi PREFACE. for Himself," which involves a presentation of the other side of the story by M. J. Du Plessis, a native of Johan- nesburg, and an able defender of his country's cause, In the concluding portion of the work, "A Brief His- tory of the Transvaal Republic," the writer has endeav- ored to present the actual historical facts so clearly and concisely as to enable the reader to obtain a distinct un- derstanding of the exact situation. There have been wrongs and mistakes upon both sides. Which nation is the most to blame for the present war is left to the reader to determine. In preparing the book many authorities have been consulted to arrive at the real facts, and the writer trusts the reader will be satis- fied with the result. C. T. B. December, 1899. PAUL KRUGER: HIS LIFE STORY. BY FRED. A. McKENZIE, OF INGLAND. FOREWORD, This little biography is not a political pamphlet in dis- guise. Those who want transcripts of State papers, the text of conventions, or the like, will have to seek them elsewhere. My aim has been to tell the story of Kruger the Man, not to write a history of the Transvaal. What sort of a man is he ? What are his ideals, his ambitions, his methods? What was the condition of things that made the autocratic rule of this patriarch so long possible at the end of the nineteenth century ? Why his distrust of and enmity to England? These questions I have endeavored to answer. Fair play forbids, and loyalty to England does not re- quire, that because Oom Paul is now at war with us I should seek to put the worst construction on all his acts, or should repeat every scrap of idle gossip against him that is floating around Cape Town bar-rooms. So far as possible, facts have been obtained at first hand from men who participated in the events here de- scribed. Free use has been made of the information given by contemporary writers. Newspapers, from the Cape Town Colonist of seventy-four years ago to the last arrivals by mail, have been pressed into service; and in the chapters describing the early life of Kruger I have been indebted to the many books of South African travel issued by missionaries, explorers and others, during the first half of this century. F. A. M. October, 1899. PAUL KRUGER: HIS LIFE STORY. CHAPTER I. MteSlDENT, PREACHER, AND PATR1ARCM. Paul Kruger is a primitive man, who, by sheer force of commanding personality, has succeeded in life with- out any of the aids of modern civilization. If we can fancy a patriarch of the days of Abraham planted down amongst us, he would find himself less out of touch with the ways and manners of our time than is this Boer ruler. Brought up from early boyhood, almost wholly out of touch with the complex emotions and artificial ways of the nineteenth century, he is one in whom the essential passions of humanity were allowed free play. He has studied life, not from books but from nature, in defend- ing himself against savages, in protecting his herds against wild beasts. Of city life, he even to-day knows almost nothing. Existence in close streets would suffo- cate him. His home in Pretoria would be regarded by the European as quite rural, and during his seventy-five years he has not spent more than a few weeks in large centres of population. Apart from gunpowder, tobacco and steel, he owes civil- ization for little. We rely for our safety on the police- man and the soldier ; he long looked for his to his readi- ness with his rifle. Our lines of action are fixed for us 12 President, Preacher and Patriarch. by hoary law ; his were, for nearly fifty years, those dic- tated by family tradition and personal will. We pride ourselves on our complex needs, on our education, on our manifold interests in life; his needs are of the simplest—a gun, a bag of oatmeal, and a strip of dried meat suffice him. Even now, surrounded by men who indulge in all the luxuries of life, he still keeps to the simplest fare. Of education, in the scholastic sense of the term, he has next to none. He can only read his Bible slowly, and ordinary writing is practically incom- prehensible to him. Books and newspapers, save the one Book, are ignored by him; and the one form of secular literature he looks at is State papers. His writing is con- fined to signing his own name, and that is an operation only performed with difficulty. His language is a patois limited to a few hundred words; and, though he under- stands English, he never speaks it. To-day, as President of the Transvaal Republic, a mill- ionaire, and the practical autocrat of a State as large as France, he still lives after the manner of a simple farmer. Up at five in the morning in summer, and a little later in winter, he drinks an early bowl of coffee, and then takes his big pipe and goes out on the veranda of his house to receive visitors. Men of all kinds come to see him. Once he welcomed all ; to-day his door is shut on most strangers. None can wonder that he has tired of receiving curious globe-trotters, who gazed at him as at some wild beast, only to come back to Europe and write ridiculing his manners and appearance. A visitor now has to be introduced by one of the Presi- dent's friends; but a burgher, however poor or rough, can walk in without ceremony, and discuss the affairs of the land with the utmost freedom. It is a sight worth going far to look on, the President and a party of burghers laughing together, poking each other in the ribs President, Preacher and Patriarch. 13 to emphasize their own wit, and filling the air with their tobacco smoke. About half-past seven the informal levee ends, and Kruger enters his sitting-room for family prayers. A brief address accompanies the short passage of Scripture, and is followed by a long prayer. After breakfast come affairs of State. Though head of a republic, Kruger no longer trusts himself unprotected amidst the people. Two sentries stand always in front of the gateway to his house, and when he leaves home for the Government buildings, escorts of armed cavalry precede and follow his carriage, bearing with them the Transvaal flag. When the, Volksraad, or Parliament, is meeting, sittings begin at nine in the morning, and Kruger is a constant attendant! taking part in all the debates. Four hours of political work, varied by frequent adjournments for smoking and conversation, bring him to dinner-time. He has no merely nominal task in this work of govern- ment. Everything centres around him. The Volksraad is more or less subordinate to him, and his political in- fluence is sufficient to carry everything he wants. Time after time great efforts have been made to break his power there. Cliques have been formed amongst the members. Great sums of money have been spent in bribing repre- sentatives to oppose the President.